Sir Walter signalled Warnett to have the sail lowered. We coasted gently along and lost way and began to wallow in the lightly lapping waves. Behind us Quittance’s misty light flickered and disappeared.
The fog thinned, and with eyes long accustomed to the dark we saw a vessel on our lee. She was high pooped and foreign, a darker shape in a grey wilderness of water.
Almost at once a shot was fired at us. It was from a light gun, and the splash of the ball was not above 20 yards short. At the same time the vessel turned away and began to disappear into the mist.
Warnett put over his helm to follow, and there was a scramble to raise the sail. Victor waved into the darkness behind him, but there was nothing there.
“We’ve lost touch with Quittance ‘
“Hark!” said Ralegh.
We listened in silence.
“I can hear the breaking of waves,” he said.
“Aye, that’s true,” said a sailor. “Over there.”
We listened again. There was silence for a minute or two and then out of the drab waste ahead came a strange sound like a tree crashing to the ground, like a load of slate being tipped.
Warnett said: “She’s struck, sir.” Without being instructed he told the sailor to lower sail.
Victor said again: “We’ve lost touch with Quittance.”
Out of the darkness ahead we now heard clearly the breaking waves. And then the cries and shouts of men. They sounded like sea birds circling a cliff face.
“Go about,” said Sir Walter, “or we shall be ashore ourselves.”
Till dawn we stayed in the vicinity, cold and blind. Then as day came we made out through the lifting mists a dark, tall coast and a ship fast upon the rocks near the mouth of an inlet. As the sun broke through the fog we descried Quittance standing far out. Captain Gyfford told us he had followed until the lead showed 3 fathoms under his keel. Lioness and Truelove had lost contact and were nowhere to be seen. There were three dark blurs to the north, but they were others of the Portuguese fleet. By the time we had been picked up they were out of sight.
On the deck of Quittance there was a hurried council of war. If we followed we might catch them, but a single crompster had hardly the mettle to take on three or more armed merchantmen; and a chase extending over a whole day would keep the rest of the squadron immobilised and out of the main attack. Sir Walter decided we should seek out Warspite and the rest.
We gained contact about nine, and the whole squadron turned south. That day we made slow progress and through the night. At six the following morning we sighted Cadiz floating like a white ghost city in a pool of blue mist. As we drew nearer the white domes and turrets solidified, the high Moorish walls rooted themselves in shelving rock and sea. And we saw that the attack on the great port had just begun.
CHAPTER FIVE
The city of Cadiz is situated on a long thin strip of land like a tongue in the mouth of a dog. It lolls a little out of the mouth as if panting in the sun.
Before this tongue our fleet was assembled, a hundred odd ships from galleons down to caravels, a sight not to be forgotten, tall ship behind tall ship; a first line of them, interspersed with the transports, from which soldiers in full armour were being loaded into boats to make a landing on the beach at the tip of the tongue, opposite a heavily guarded fort, San Sebastian. Drawn up in the shallow water beneath the fort were six Spanish galleys waiting to dispute the landing.
As the sun climbed the wind was freshening from the southwest, and I think Ralegh could not quite believe his eyes at what he saw.
“This this is madness! ” he shouted vehemently to Carew, who had rejoined him from Mary Rose. “If it had been begun at four, before dawn broke, it might have had a prospect of success. But this is not a surprise attack ~ They have been warned, they’re ready! A frontal assault in this sea … Do they relish sending troops to certain death?”
Carew seemed surprised at the outburst and frowned shorewards. “It will be a hard fight, but no doubt we shall prevail.”
“I had heard nothing of this t We were going in by seal It cannot be sense to make a frontal attack with troops on a well defended shore … By the living God, I’ll wager they have fallen out between themselves, Essex and the Howards, and some question of prestige is involved!”
“It would not be surprising,” Carew muttered.
“No, it would not be surprising. But if we can intervene we may yet stop this bloody sacrifice.” intervened Nonsense.
~ It’s too late. No one will listen. Essex is the best of them, and he’s stubborn as a mule “
“Well, the mule must be moved! I’ll go at once, and you shall come with me … Lookl Look therel What did I tell you!”
One of the boats leaving the protection of Due Repulse and crowded with men had been hit by the rising swell and had capsized. Many of the men in it, weighted down as they were with armour, sank like stones. Others clung desperately to the upturned keel or floundered for a moment or two before disappearing for ever. A dozen or more swam to the next boat and clambered aboard it. That, pulled violently down and swung off its course by the swimmers, turned broadside on to the waves and likewise capsized.
But Ralegh was already gone. I was after him to the side, but Victor and Sir George were before me and the boat was pushed off before I could argue. So I did not see what followed and only heard it from Victor after.
“He went aboard Due Repulse and bearded Essex in front of all his officers. Walter can truly look like the devil when he chooses. He demanded to know what change of plan this was which had come of a sudden while he was away and how it could be justified since its nature jeopardised the success of the expedition. Essex replied angrily that it was all the fault of the Lord Admiral, who insisted that the town must be taken before he risked his ships in the narrow waters of the harbour. Walter said Drake had disproved such timidity. Essex said, ah, yes, but Drake was dead and none like him commanded here. Thereupon they continued arguing but in a gradually more friendly frame, and while they argued Essex sent word that the landings might be stayed.
“Then Walter stormed out and went to see the Lord Admiral. I was not with him there but remained in the boat. In forty minutes he was out and we were rowing back to Due Repulse. Somehow I know not how by violence of manner, by force of character, by cogency of argument, he has got his way. We are going in by sea, as first arranged.”
“But we have not yet gone in.”
“No; we’ve missed the tide, and next will see us in only an hour before nightfall. Walter himself advised against a night attack.”
“So we force the harbour tomorrow at dawn?”
“At dawn.”
“In what order?”
“I have forgotten. All I know is that we lead.”
I slept fitfully. During the night there was cannon fire from time to time between the Spanish galleons in the mouth of the harbour and the leading English ships, notably Mary Rose which under Carew’s urging had edged nearest to them and to the shore batteries. All night there was a subtle movement and manoeuvring of the English ships, like men jostling at the start of a race, each captain trying to gain the best position for the assault on the morrow.
I woke a dozen times staring at the stars and waiting for them to wane. At last a faint blueing of the sky was enough and I was up and had buckled on my breastplate before Victor woke. We only just reached the deck as Warspite weighed anchor. It was done slyly, in silence, without fanfare or command; we slipped away as if to some lover’s tryst. But the silent ships around us had been silently watching; they were not to be left that way and we were by only some three minutes the first to slip off. The sails of Carew’s Mary Rose came rattling down, and as he moved close after us he was followed by Robert Southwel1 in Lion, he by Clifford in Dreadnought, then Crosse in Swiftsure and Lord Thomas Howard in Nonpareil.